As rain poured down, people huddled under umbrellas cradling small candles while the names of those who died from HIV/AIDS over the past year were read aloud at a candlelight vigil June 21.

The crowd of about 200 gathered around the AIDS Memorial in Cawthra Park, on which are inscribed more than 2,500 names. The vigil honours, remembers and celebrates those who have died from the disease and recognizes all those affected by, and living with, HIV/AIDS.

Co-hosts Angela Robertson, chair of the Black Coalition for AIDS prevention, and Mark Fisher, director of technology with the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, told personal stories about how AIDS has affected their lives. Fisher lost his husband.

“HIV/AIDS has touched all our lives,” Robertson told the crowd. “We gather here every year and call out names. That is how we remember.”

Robertson also called out the names of community groups like Black CAP and Casey House, as well as activist movements like ACT UP, which have played a key role in raising awareness, pushing for political action, healing the sick and comforting family members.

The Annual AIDS Vigil in Cawthra Park is always a remarkably moving event. What wasn't so great last year was discovering that the engraved names on the 2010 pylon were so incredibly tiny, you needed bi-focals and a huge magnifying glass to read them. Costs to have names included have increased since I had the name of someone I cared about included in 2003 - and the legibility of those names have correspondingly diminshed. I can't help but feel that my partner, who passed away in 2010...and all the other persons listed on the most recent pylon (and their surviving loved ones) have been dealt a disservice. Would those involved with the Memorial (a fantastic installation by the way) care to defend its use of teeny tiny unreadable typeface?